The conference will take place in February.

A 150-word abstract should be submitted prior to August 23, associate professor and conference convenor Naj Aziz said.

“The conference duration has been extended by an additional day to allow more papers to be presented, enabling increased paper presentation time slot and discussion,” Aziz told ILN.

“Accordingly there will be some 12 technical sessions, enabling high quality presentation to be made in the three days conference.

“Abstracts are invited on various topics on both underground and surface mining, which include mining methods, geology and geophysics, ground control and subsidence, rock bolting, mine fires, mine safety, mine management, contracts and risk management and more.”

The additional one-day extension to the conference time should provide an opportunity to encourage increased paper and delegate numbers, according to Aziz.

“It is hoped that the surface mining operators will participate in greater numbers to encourage technical discussion and sharing of knowledge between both underground and surface mining operation practice,” he said.

“The conference is also keen to receive abstracts on papers from other countries with innovative practices.

“Opportunities are available of the conference sponsorships as product exhibitions.”

The conference, to be held on February 12-14, is jointly organised between the University of Wollongong mining group, the Illawarra Branch of the Institution of mining and metallurgy and Mine manager’s Association of Australia.

It will again will be held at the McKinnon Building of the University of Wollongong.

Further details of the conference are available at the conference website http://www.coalconference.net.au.